A Bunch of Firsts

We have just returned from the Jersey Shore. And 195 pictures later, here is a brief overview.

It was the girls first plane ride with their Daddy(who for a non-flyer, did extremely well even on the return flight landing through horrible storms.)

Both Girls had their first taste of Jersey Pizza, homemade pretzels , slushies on the boardwalk, funnel cakes, Italian ice and many other fine healthy delicacies.

Grace went to her first water park and rode many different slides. She started off slowly in the kiddie pool going down the baby slides and progressed from there to double tube slides and a steep slide into the pool.

Lily rode her first carousel, the howitzer, a train and her first set of baby boats all on Morey's Piers in Wildwood Crest.

Grace rode MANY different roller coasters on the piers, her favorite being the one she rode alone with her cousin(no mommy).

Grace boogy boarded in the Atlantic Ocean, Lily had her first dip in the Atlantic Ocean. They both loved sculpting the sand, and running full throttle into the ocean. It was so hot out that the 70 degree water was extremely refreshing. Lily would keep trying to get deeper and deeper until the waves would knock her over. Grace kept riding wave after wave. Those nights they ate and slept well.

Lily got to meet her Piacesi cousins for the first time. Lisa who is 13 was an excellent babysitter, and gave me many needed breaks from making sure Lily didn't go up and down the stairs, or bunk bed ladders, or even out on the deck from the littler children leaving the doors open. Joe who is 11 did great also. He would play with her and gave her lots of toys.

Both girls had a ton of fun with the Gilray cousins who are 7 and 5. Faith the eldest, was a little mother hen, trying to get Lily to do things (she learned Lily doesn't do anything she doesn't want to.) Campbell would play well with Lily and rode lots of rides with her and was very helpful. Grace stayed in the room with the Gilray's and had lots of late nights and watched movies, read books and played lots of fun things with Faith and Cam.

We were there to celebrate Pop-pop's 70th birthday. We took family pictures, had lots of good food, and a ton of fun. We were able to spend time with Pop-pop, Grandma, Aunt B, Mrs. Gallagher, Ms. Brenda and her two cute kids. Lily called Pop-pop by name, and Grandma too, this was a first since the last time we saw them these words were not in her vocabulary.

Now it is time to sit back and relax for the last three weeks of summer. The girls and I are headed to Auburn to help Aunt Anna get her classroom ready, I will get the two teeth implanted that I have been missing for 4 years, the braces will come off of my bottom teeth, we will work a couple of dance camps, birthday parties and hopefully finish cleaning out the closets to take things to goodwill. Well doesn't sound too relaxing does it....oh well that's life.

In a post note, we feel the date of July 15th approaching. It was Brendan's due date and even though it was over 3 years ago that we lost him, some wounds are never truly healed.

Swim Like a Fish

It is that time of year again.

We are spending everyday at least 45 minutes a day at the pool.

Grace is on "The Team."

She loves being on the swim team. When it comes to meet days, she gets so nervous and overly excited. She loves cheering on her team mates. She enjoys swimming across the pool and giving you a great big hug afterwards. She has even started liking the fact that I write on her body for the meet. She doesn't let me write more than her event/heat/lane chart and her name and age, but this is a big improvement over last year. She has improved her time and is swimming in 3 events per meet, freestyle, backstroke and a freestyle relay.

At meets she eats and eats and eats, hot dogs, pizza, candy and anything else that I might pack/buy for her.

This year is proving much harder for mommy with a mobile toddler instead of a lap baby. Lily is well known all around the pool. She does her laps around the pool deck. She gets her exercise getting in and out of the pools. (There is a baby pool, but she prefers to play on the stairs and jump into the big pool. She dislikes having mommy hold her in the pool and she does not want to be in the baby float. She wants FREEDOM! She loves meets, because everyone knows her name(I don't even have to write it on her back), she can eat all the junk she wants and she LOVES cheering for her sister. (It also helps that our neighbors and best friends are on the team). She also hates meets because they are LONG, HOT and she can't get into the pool at all. (wait til next year when Grace moves up to the 7-8 year old crowd and there are more events.)

So far Grace has participated in 2 meets and has 2 left(we were out of town for the first one.) The first that she participated in was away and she did pretty well with only mommy there to cheer her on. The next meet was home, delayed for about an hour due to heavy thunder and lightening, but otherwise fun. Can't wait to see what the next two hold.

Well it is time to rest from our morning at the pool and for mommy to think of new ways to put muscle as well as meat on Grace's skinny bones.

This is what you do with 4 swimmer waiting out a storm, go to the car and watch a movie!

Go Waves!

It is officially Summer!

We spent a week at the Florida coast last week, before the oil hit. Of course I took over 300 pictures with my fancy new camera. Here is just a sneak peak........

Really, really, go away Monday!

Oh so much fun.
NOT
Today started the "lazy days" of summer. Grace started off with a bang by waking us up at around 1:20 for the first time. Another time around 2:30 and then sometime around 5:45. Tom then had to get ready for work. So eventually we got to breakfast and getting ready for Swim team practice. We had a great day swimming and playing at the pool for a while after swim team. Then it was time to go home for lunch, baths and naps.
That is when it all happened.
As we were walking to the car, I stepped off the curb and my ankle twisted and I heard a LOUD pop and all my muscles went limp. Unfortunately I was carrying Lily. I fell to the ground as did Lily scraping her ear and hitting the back of her head on the asphalt. So we then spent the rest of the afternoon, riding in an ambulance to the hospital, getting an x-ray of my foot and ankle, getting the all clear on Lily's head injury and detoxing upon getting home.

At this point I want to say THANK YOU to Ms. Lara and her boys for calling 911, watching Grace and helping me wrap my head around everything. Thank you to the Firefighters and EMTs for your kind words and especially Firefighter Jeff who was a very nice YOUNG guy who put Ms. Lily at ease and held her while she slept(he got a lot of teasing even from his captain and nurses in the hospital). Thank you to my wonderful loving husband who dropped everything and met us at the ER, drove us home, bought us dinner and an ice pack. Thank you to my parents and who came to the ER and were the liaison between me in fast track 3 and Lily in pediatric ER and sat with me in my wet bathing suit awaiting to see what the x-rays said. Also I should say thank you to the nurses, doctors and technicians who attended to us at the hospital.

So it is just a sprain and Lily may have a headache, but it is over, it is almost Tuesday.

Goodnight.

I hate May

Really I do. It is too jam packed with things that HAVE to be done. There is the normal stuff, mother's day, birthdays, work and all the things that go on the other 9 months of the school year. Then comes the added bonus of end of the school year. That means RECITAL(big one for me being that I work at the dance studio), Mother's day tea for the 3's at preschool(again big for me in that I work there), field day(this year was Grace's first), Kindergarten completion, end of the year parties(preschool class I teach, Lily's class, dance classes, Grace's class), swim team for Gracie(nightly practice), teacher gift shopping, graduation parties, weddings(of which I am missing due to all the other stuff), and anything else you can name is happening THIS month. Add on top this year that Tom had the opportunity to go to Savannah for his once a year prosecutor training(means no Jekyll Island for my birthday) on the week of RECITAL. So yes I got to do the whole single mom thing the week of recital. Thank God for Grandma coming to stay with us. I never sleep when Tom is out of town and slept much better with another adult in the house, still I would have rather been in Savannah with views of the river, instead of running to and from the studio DAILY. The hardest part this month has been slowing down enough to enjoy it all.

The highlight of recital for me was one of my students in the last recital, two dances before the end, as I was trying to convince another little girl to get on the stage, stood center stage and announced "The show is about to begin!" I then had to stand on the stage and do the dance with the class. What a show!

Grace's dancing was beautiful. She has turned into such a beautiful dancer and loves to perform.(she takes after her aunt Anna). Lily enjoyed helping set up the stage and didn't want to leave the stage, so it looks like we may have another performer on our hands.

I have no pictures of recital.

(I was working and no one thought to get the camera out of the diaper bag!)

Field day was fun. Grace had such a good time playing the games with her friends. I do think her favorite part was the snow cone. It did get called short by her teacher for some passing rain clouds and slow groups in front of us. We only missed 3 stations and about 20 minutes.

Lily's end of the year party was cute. It was a sticky, messy situation, but the kids had fun. There were Popsicles, sand and bubbles. Talk about needing a bath!

My end of the year party was exhausting yet fun. It is hard to believe that the school year is over for me. Dance ends tomorrow and Grace has 5 days left.

I am so ready for the Lazy days of summer. Hopefully they will come. Of course there is the trip to Destin, the trip to Virginia and the trip to NJ, swim team all of June and work at Dance Camps, plus getting ready to be a lead teacher in the 3's and getting Grace ready for First Grade. Oh MY!

Diva

Grace got her class picture back the other day. You know how class pictures go, everyone looking somewhere else, hair a mess, smiles cheesy if they are even smiling. Amazingly Grace was able to overcome all of that and pose for the picture. She sticks out like the Diva she is and those that know her all get a good giggle out of the class picture. So here it is..........

She has also taught her sister to say cheese when the camera is out.

My favorite day

My absolute favorite day is probably Saturday. Not because of the day itself, but just because it means I get the whole afternoon and evening with my family. The best part of the day is after dinner when we have the Campbell Dance Party. We turn on the tunes, and we dance around the family room. Grace's favorite song is "Evacuate the Dance Floor" she knows all the lyrics and boogies all over the place. Lily just likes being in the middle of everything. There are always lots of giggles, and some pretty unique dance moves. Now I won't say that we are better than Dancing with the Stars, but ............. So hopefully soon I will be able to get some video of my girls dancing. This is the best present a mommy can get, the joy of her children dancing together.